Becoming Writers
Twenty-First-Century Ways of Composing
edited by Karen Lunsford, Carl Whithaus, and Jonathan Alexander
Imprint: Utah State University Press
Hardcover Price: $95.00
Paperback Price: $27.95
Ebook Price: $22.95
30-day ebook rental price: $11.50
Becoming Writers draws on phenomenological and lifespan approaches to writing research, reframing writing as a lived process shaped by social contexts, evolving technologies, and a writer’s own sense of self and agency. It moves beyond familiar binaries and offers a more holistic account of what it means to become a writer today.
Bringing together scholars from across the fields of writing studies and rhetoric/composition to consider the ways “writing” is changing in the twenty-first century, this collection tracks how and why people talk about the various forms of writing they do. Contributors address how younger generations understand the role and place of writing in their lives, particularly amid increasing and dramatic economic, social, and political change, as well as the ever-evolving role of writing in what it means to be human.
Becoming Writers builds on the Wayfinding Project (https://thewayfindingproject.com), a multiyear study of writing development focused on college graduates. Rather than focusing solely on the classroom, Becoming Writers investigates how writing functions in people’s professional, civic, personal, and digital lives. By centering lived experiences across domains, it provides a model of the empirical depth and different methodological approaches being used by scholars interested in writing development across the lifespan.
Contributors: Ryan Dippre, Dana Driscoll, Michele Eodice, Rosie Ettenheim, Anne Ellen Geller, Jialei Jiang, Kory Lawson Ching, Neal Lerner, Cara Messina, Jessica Moore, Federico Navarro, Stacey Pigg, Natalia Ávila Reyes, Wenxi Schwab, Anna Smith, Autumn West, and Omar Yacoub
